Everything You Need to Know About WhatsApp API
📝 General Usage
By activating a WhatsApp API account in your company, you will have access to advanced features that may incur charges. The WhatsApp API allows sending two types of messages:
1️⃣Conversations:
With session messages, you can respond to your customers within 24 hours. If more than 24 hours pass, the conversation will expire and you will have to use message templates to continue it. WhatsApp imposes a messaging limitation on companies that use its API to send messages. This limitation is known as "Session Messages" and aims to prevent spam and ensure that received messages are addressed in a timely manner.
2️⃣Message Templates
After a conversation has expired (after 24 hours) or to start a new conversation, companies can only use message templates to respond to their customers on WhatsApp. It should be noted that these templates must be approved by META before they can be used.
WhatsApp message templates support multimedia and interactive messages, allowing you to include images, videos, or PDF documents, as well as call-to-action buttons or quick replies. Since 2021, WhatsApp has updated its policies to allow companies to generate broader and more diverse content, and thus create different types of campaigns using these templates. However, it is important to keep in mind WhatsApp's commerce policies to avoid sending spam to users, receiving a bad rating on the number, or even being blocked.
Types of Business Accounts
There are two types of WhatsApp Business API accounts:
1. Official Business Account ✅
If your WhatsApp account is an official business account, instead of showing your phone number, your company name will be displayed in the chat list, chat screens, chat groups, and contact view. In addition, a green checkmark will appear next to your company name in the contact view.
Functioning
WhatsApp has verified that this account is owned by an original and notable brand.
How to Get the Green Badge?
The criteria for WhatsApp Official Business Accounts (OBA) are based on various factors and are different from the policies of other platforms. In addition to complying with WhatsApp's Commerce and Business Policies, companies must meet the following requirements:
Notable: Be a well-known business, entity, or brand with frequent searches.
Verified: Have passed business verification.
2FA: Have set up two-step verification.
2. Business Account
If your WhatsApp account is a business account, the display name will only be shown in the contact view in smaller text and you will not have the green verification badge; in all other views, the phone number will be displayed. To give customers more information about your company, you can fill in the corresponding information, such as the website, address, and hours.
Depending on the type of business account, users will see different elements. If a user has already saved the company number in their address book, the name from the address book is always displayed. The phone number remains visible in the contact view.
💡 Considerations:
A WABA account can have a maximum of 250 message templates.
You can register 25 phone numbers per WhatsApp Business account by default. If you have a specific reason and want to extend this limit, contact direct support.
A single Business Manager does not have a limit on the number of WABA accounts it can contain.
A WABA account must belong to only one Business Manager. The owner of a WABA account cannot be two or more Business Managers.
The time zone and currency of the WABA account cannot be edited once it is connected to a line of credit.
You cannot migrate a WABA account from one business to another.
Now that we know what a WhatsApp API account is 🤓, we will learn the steps and what is required to activate it. Get ready to take your business to the next level with Atom 🚀
What Do I Need to Do to Get an API Account?
To have a WhatsApp API account, you must meet META's requirements and verify your business in Business Manager; this includes following WhatsApp's commerce and business policies and being a notable business. At ATOM we have a team that will accompany you and advise you so that you can activate a WhatsApp API account and start using all the benefits. Learn what a business manager is and what you should do to verify it and be able to obtain a WhatsApp API account.